journal features

goin' green in nova scotia

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Halifax, 2004.05.30

Today, for the first time in my life, I decided to stop simply grouching about politics and do something.

Not much, just a political poster on my balcony that says 'Vote Green'. I contacted this fellow on Thursday, and he agreed to come 'round and leave me with a sign. So now I have it lashed to the outside of my balcony's railing with four 'biners and some strips of one of my favourite old shirts.

Yes, I'm one of those embarrassing people with a political banner sign. At least mine doesn't have this creep on it.

rand()m quote

Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them. In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.

—Michael Crichton